Perceived Parental Control Processes, Parent–Child Relational Qualities, and Adolescent Psychological Well-Being in Intact and Nonintact Families: Longitudinal Findings in the Chinese Culture

ABSTRACT

Over 3 consecutive years, Chinese adolescents from intact families (n = 2,140) and nonintact families (n = 234) responded to instruments assessing their perceived parental behavioral control (parental knowledge, expectation, monitoring, discipline, and demandingness, as well as parental control based on indigenous Chinese concepts), parental psychological control, parent–child relational qualities (satisfaction with parental control, child's readiness to communicate with the parents, and perceived mutual trust between parents and their children), and psychological well-being. Perceived parental behavioral control processes, parent–child relational qualities, and psychological well-being were poorer in nonintact families relative to intact families over time. In contrast, maternal psychological control was higher in nonintact families over time than in intact families over time. Adolescents from stable and disruptive nonintact families without remarriage generally performed poorer than did adolescents from nonintact families with remarriage on the various indicators of family processes and adolescent psychological well-being.

KEYWORDS:

• Nonintact families
• divorced and remarried families
• Chinese families
• parental control
• parent–adolescent relational quality
• adolescent psychological well-being

This work was financially supported by the Research Grants Council of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong (Grant CUHK4293/03H) and Wofoo Foundation.